The “Energy - Crisis or Opportunity?” Story
By: Linsey Siede
It was March 1979, and as evidenced by the increasing number of “odds and evens” days being implemented at Australian petrol stations in order to fill your vehicle’s tank, there were continual rumblings of an ongoing global crude oil shortage. As a young 24 year old Engineer who had only been at Holden since January 1976, Linsey Siede was asked by his boss at the time Mr. Ed Silins, to make a presentation on Alternative Fuels to the monthly meeting of the Engine Group. These monthly gatherings were held in the meeting room next to the Chief Engineer’s office (Joe Whitesell at that time), and were also usually attended by the Assistant Chief Engineer, and sometimes the Chief Engineer.
As well as his main tasks of Exhaust system design, and submission of the Holden ADR27a and ADR28 government submissions, Linsey was also asked to look after Holden’s Corporate Average Fuel Consumption (CAFC) submission, and to investigate “Alternative Fuels”. The presentation focused mainly on alternative “liquid” fuels such as Methanol, Ethanol, Diesel, MTBE, Shale Oil, fuel from Coal, etc., with a few exotic gasses such as Hydrogen thrown in for good measure. The presentation was enthusiastically received by all who attended (including Joe Whitesell), and Linsey was then asked to work with an even newer young Holden engineer Barrie Dobson, to add LPG and CNG, and then make a 30 minute presentation to the Holden Board of Directors.
For a not-so-worldly 24 year old born in the small country town of Euroa and spending his first 21 years living in regional Victoria, this was a rather daunting request. At that time Holden had 25,000 employees, spread across more than 7 assembly/manufacturing plants in 5 States. In the late 70’s it was the time of “flimsies” (or “overheads”) used for presentations that were shown on overhead projectors, so a comprehensive package was prepared in readiness. I remember being warned at the time that we only had 30 minutes on the Board’s agenda, and to make absolutely sure you do NOT go overtime. We rehearsed multiple times, and were comfortable we had it under control.
Up we went in the lift to the second floor, and were escorted into the Boardroom to make our presentation. There were many questions throughout the presentation, and more than an hour later we finally finished. Having been pre-warned about not going overtime, I thought to myself we are in big trouble. I was right, but for the wrong reasons!!
Unbeknown to us at the time, the Directors were actively looking for ways to positively and publicly promote Holden in light of the debate over vehicle fuel consumption, and the government pressures being put on the OEM’s to reduce their CAFC.
The next thing we knew we were being asked to neaten-up (read consolidate) the presentation, and were scheduled to present it on July 10th 1979 to the people from Holden’s external marketing and promotional company “George Patterson Pty. Limited”. This meant rehearsals on June 15th with the Engineering department (including Joe Whitesell, Peter Hanenberger, Lou Kiddle, Frank Pound, Fred Jamison and Helmut Fuhrmann), and make changes; a presentation to the P.P.C. on July 3rd and make more changes; and finally present it to a team from George Patterson.
Head of this task at George Patterson was Mr Bill Tuckey, who is obviously well known to everyone involved with Motoring, but who (at the time) was unknown to me, and they were tasked with making the presentation suitable for public promotion and distribution.
Somewhere during the many meetings held in June & July 1979, that involved the “re-writing and diagrammatic enhancement” process, someone suggested that to further highlight the end-product even more, it really should be “promoted & presented” by key Holden executives to both Federal and State Governments and key Industry executives right across Australia. It was recommended to also present it twice in each location - once in the morning for Government, and once in the afternoon for Industry. A final rehearsal was held in the Holden Theatrette at 5:00pm on July 23rd. Our little presentation had really gained momentum!!!
During 1979 the “Energy - Crisis or Opportunity” Conference/Seminar was held on 13 separate dates, and on 5 of those dates, was conducted twice during the same day; once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
It was hugely successful gaining publication in almost every Newspaper and Motoring Magazine. It also involved around 30 Holden Employees including the Managing Director, almost all of the Directors, and many senior executives.
Early on the presentations, I made a mistake and instead of saying “Fossil Sources” I said “Sossil Forces”. In a rather staid presentation it got quite a laugh and the environment relaxed a little, and so it became a permanent part of all future presentations. The media coverage was extremely positive and very wide-spread, and Holden received many accolades for taking the time and effort to provide this informative and constructive presentation and Folder/booklet to a very broad range of recipients. The Folders and later on Booklets were in huge demand.
For the key participants, a celebratory dinner was held upstairs in a private dining area at Florentino’s in Bourke Street. This meeting left a lasting impression on this young engineer, as over coffee I watched Leo Prunaeu and Joe Whitesell discuss a certain feature on a certain vehicle. Not being able to adequately describe the feature in words, they cleared the dishes in front of themselves; Leo took out a black marker pen, and started to draw the feature on the pristine white linen tablecloth. Not agreeing with the details in this drawing, Joe then took the pen, and sketched his idea of what it was like. Wow, what a different world this was to mine; and what a wonderful memory that I will never forget.
L to R: Leo Pruneau, Evan Green, Lou Kiddle, Linsey Siede, Fred Jamison & Al Thompson. NSW - 28th August, 1979.
Presentation Dates:
According to the official GMH Speech Program for 1979, the “Energy - Crisis or Opportunity” presentation was made on 10 different occasions, and many times twice per day in both the morning and the afternoon. Communications from Mr Evan Green show that the presentation was also made a further 3 times in 1979.
The presentation/seminar dates were:
July 24th 1979 In Canberra to Government Officers from the Departments of:
Industry & Commerce
National Development
Treasury
Trade and Resources
Business and Consumer Affairs
Transport
Prime Minister and Cabinet
July 25th 1979 In the GMH Theatrette to the Deputy Premier of South Australia
July 27th 1979 In the GMH Theatrette to members of the New Zealand Government
August 28th 1979 New South Wales Government and Industry Leaders - (a.m. & p.m.)
August 30th 1979 Victorian Government and Industry Leaders - (a.m. & p.m.)
August 31st 1979 South Australian Government and Industry Leaders - (a.m. & p.m.)
September 7th 1979 Western Australian Government and Industry Leaders - (a.m. & p.m.)
September 10th 1979 National Press Conference
September 11th 1979 Queensland Government and Industry Leaders - (a.m. & p.m.)
November 8th 1979 Confederation of W.A. Industry (Inc.)
November 17th 1979 Parliament of N.S.W. Legislative Assembly
November 26th 1979 Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia
December 13th 1979 South Australian Government and Industry Leaders
The presentation was requested and made many more times in 1980. Some of these included:
January 16th 1980 S.A. Fabrication Management Review Meeting, GMH Ltd
May 14th 1980 “Energy - Crisis or Opportunity” Seminar at Marcus Oldham Farm Management College
May 17th 1980 Young National Country Party of Australia
People Involved:
The Holden people that were incorporated into and involved in this Project reads like the who’s who at Holden, at that time. The various presentations made across Australia involved the following people:
Mr Charles (Chuck) Chapman - Managing Director
Mr Bruce Black - Manufacturing Manager, Fisherman’s Bend Operations
Mr John Bremner - Regional Public Affairs Manager, S.A., W.A. & N.T.
Mr Eric N. Clark - Director of Supply
Mr. Bill DeLong - Director of Finance
Mr Ed A. Ellison - Director of Personnel
Mr Helmut Fuhrmann - Engine Development, Engineering
Mr Evan Green - Director of Public Relations
Mr Peter Hanenberger - Assistant Chief Engineer
Mr N. Fred Jamison - Engine Engineer, Engineering
Mr Lew Kiddle - Manager of Laboratories, Service & Product Liaison
Mr John Loveridge - Sales Director
Mr Marc McInnes - Regional Public Affairs Manager, N.S.W. & Qld
Mr J. Moffatt - Manager, Plant 4, Elizabeth
Mr John Morrison - Regional Public Affairs Manager, Victoria
Mr Larry F. Nies - Director, Product Planning
Mr Frank Pound - Vehicle Safety Engineer
Mr Leo Pruneau - Director of Design
Mr John Rock - Director of Marketing
Mr Richard J. Sexton - Manager, Community Relations
Mr T. Jim Stratton - Director of Reliability & Quality Control
Mr Al Thompson - Engineering specialist from GM USA
Mr Joe Whitesell - Chief Engineer & Director of Engineering
Mr Don Wylie - Chief Body Engineer
And of course:
Mr Ken Jacoby - Photographic Department
Ms Janice Jeffries - Photographic Department
Mr Linsey Siede - Co-author and Senior Design Engineer
Mr Barrie Dobson - Co-author and Design Engineer
Slide Show and Publications:
Internal:
An incredibly detailed and synchronised slide show was prepared to run in conjunction with the speakers, and involved the synchronisation of 2 separate 35mm projectors. The slides were prepared and operated by Ken Jacoby and Janice Jeffries from the Holden Photographic Department, which was located next to the Theatrette in the Engineering building.
For the first few State and Federal Government Seminars, an A4 3-ring binder containing the complete wording of the presentations along with photographic quality copies of all the slide illustrations were prepared and handed out. The pages for the wording were also made from good quality heavy paper, and the folders were hugely popular and in great demand.
The problem was they were very expensive to produce, particularly with the photographic quality illustrations. Hence, a second generation of A4 3-ring folders were made using the same paper as the initial ones for the wording, but with the illustrations now printed in colour on the same paper as the wording.
The demand for these folders was still extremely high, so a third generation was created. These were A5 booklets consisting of 56 pages printed in black and white, including the illustrations.
External:
The presentation material was referenced many times in both Newspapers and Magazines, and was also re-printed in full in a number of publications including Truck&Bus magazine, Marcus Oldham College Seminar, The SAE-Australasia Journal, etc.
Interestingly, the acting Prime Minister Mr Doug Anthony made front page headlines in the Financial Review newspaper on February 12th 1980, by quoting a number from the presentation. The headline says “Toolebuc has 12,000 years of shale oil, says Anthony.” The reference was double checked with Linsey Siede by members of his staff, with all of the calculations sent to them prior to this announcement.
Both Linsey and Barrie were also awarded the O’Shannesy Award from the SAE-Australasia for the best presentation in 1979 by presenters under the age of 30.
Finally, Mr Frank Pound and Mr Linsey Siede were nominated by Holden to speak before the Senate Standing Committee on National Resources, Parliament of Australia, on February 8th 1980. Messrs Pound and Siede were there to give evidence on the subject of replacement of petroleum based fuels by alternative sources of energy.
News Reports (Click to read)
Australia 'a Saudi Arabia' Diesel Coal
Magazine reports (click to read)
Footnote:
You can read here the full Presentation that was presented to the SAE International Conference in 1980, and won the O’Shannessy Award for its presenters. Interestingly, the President of SAE Australasia in 1980 was Mr Joe Whitesell.
This presentation/paper was written in 1979, and here now in 2021 about the only difference between the situation then and now is Electric Cars. Everything else remains almost the same as it was some 40 years later as covered in the original presentation from 1979!